Hamilton, Texas

Everything Hamilton is known for

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Music in Hamilton

Songs About Hamilton

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Artists From Hamilton

P
Presley Haile
country Pop: 18
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praisley haile
country Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Hamilton

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Hamilton.

Texas Colorado River 6 songs Brazos River 37 songs

History of Hamilton

Hico, TX RoadyGoat

Hico's fame is tied to one of the most persistent legends of the Old West. In the late 1940s, an elderly man living here named Ollie 'Brushy Bill' Roberts made a startling claim: he was Billy the Kid. He alleged that Sheriff Pat Garrett had killed the wrong man back in 1881 and that he had lived out his life in secret. In 1950, Brushy Bill went to New Mexico to seek a pardon from the governor, but his claim was met with skepticism. Just a month later, he collapsed and died on a sidewalk right here in Hico. While historians almost universally dispute his story, Hico has embraced its unique connection to the legend. You can visit the Billy the Kid Museum downtown and decide for yourself. Was he a simple man with a tall tale, or the real outlaw living his last days in this quiet Texas town?

18.6 mi away

The Ghost of Billy the Kid RoadyGoat

Right in the heart of Hico, you can find a museum dedicated to a man who claimed to be a ghost from the Old West. In 1949, William Morrison, a lawyer working on an estate case, tracked down an elderly Hico resident named Ollie 'Brushy Bill' Roberts. Roberts confessed a secret he'd kept for nearly 70 years: he was William H. Bonney, the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid. He claimed Pat Garrett had shot another man and let him escape. Brushy Bill, hoping to clear his name, traveled to New Mexico in 1950 to request a pardon, but the governor was unconvinced. A month later, while walking to mail a package, Brushy Bill collapsed from a heart attack on a Hico sidewalk and died. Documented records put him at seventy-one, though he'd insisted he was born back in 1859 — the older age he needed to be if his story were true. While historians have largely debunked his claim, the tale put Hico on the map. The town doesn't claim it's true, but it proudly tells the story of the man who might have been Billy the Kid.

18.6 mi away

Whitney, Ann

1867

Elizabeth (Ann) Whitney, a native of Missouri, accepted a teaching position at a newly erected rural school located about seven miles north of present day Hamilton in 1867. This school, called the Leon River School, was situated on a rise overlooking the Warlene Valley. On a hot summer afternoon in 1867 Ann and her students were suddenly attacked by Comanche Indians. According to local tradition Ann was repeatedly struck by arrows fired through cracks in the schoolhouse walls. Although fatally injured she nevertheless bravely aided the escape of all but one of her young students.

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Col. George R. Freeman

1865

(1830-1910) Kentucky native George Freeman came to Texas in the 1840s. He fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, then came to Austin as captain of the treasury guards. That group of about thirty former Confederate soldiers defended the state treasury from an 1865 robbery. Though the robbers escaped with $17,000, Freeman's group was recognized for saving the remainder of the treasury, preventing possible impairment to the Texas economy. In the mid-1870s, Freeman moved to Hamilton and practiced law; his most famous case was the Greer County dispute, in which he represented Texas before the U. S. Supreme Court. Freeman was also active in community and church affairs until his death. (2008)

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Waerenskjold, Elise

1846

Influential early promoter of Norwegian emigration to Texas; born Elise Tvede in 1815. In 1846, after John Reiersen migrated to Texas to found the first Norwegian settlement in the state, she became editor of his periodical "Norway and Texas." Through her articles, many were inspired to move here. In 1847 she, too, moved to Texas, and resided in both Van Zandt County and Hamilton County. She married Wilhelm Waerenskjold. Often they welcomed grateful newcomers into their home. Here she helped preserve the history of her people. Died 1895.

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Moore, Billy [Tiny]

1937

Billy "Tiny" Moore, mandolinist and fiddler, was born on May 12, 1920, in Hamilton County, Texas. Moore's mother and grandfather taught him piano, fiddle, and guitar during his childhood. As an adolescent he backed his mother in her band and played with a group of friends known as the Clod Hoppers. After hearing Leo Raley play one of the first electric mandolins, Moore adopted the instrument. His first electric mandolin was built by Raymond Jones, a friend who lived in Port Arthur, Texas. Given the nickname “Tiny” because of his large size, Moore performed professionally with a group called the Port Arthur Jubileers. Beginning in 1937, Moore traveled the South and played mandolin in several bands. In Mobile, Alabama, he played in Lloyd Ellis's Jazz Trio, and in Rayne, Louisiana, he accompanied a Cajun band called the Rainbow Ramblers. He moved to Houston before 1943 and played in the Crustene Ranch Gang band, which regularly appeared on local radio stations. Moore enlisted in the United States Army Air Force and served from 1943 to 1945. After the war he joined western swing legend Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. In 1946 and 1947 Wills and the Playboys recorded the Tiffany Transcriptions , in which Moore played electric mandolin and fiddle, and for which he arranged the music. He also managed the Wills Point Ballroom in Sacramento, California, which was owned by Bob Wills. In 1950 Moore took a break from performing with Wills's traveling band and married Dean McKinney (of the McKinney Sisters), another member of the Wills band. They had three children. After his departure from the Texas Playboys, Moore settled in the Sacramento area and formed a western swing band with Bob's younger brother, Billy Jack Wills. The band played regularly at the Wills Point Ballroom and on local radio station KFRK. Moore arranged most of the music and played fiddle and his newly-built Bigsby five-string electric mandolin. Billy Jack played drums, and a young Vance Terry played steel guitar in the ensemble. In 1954 the band broke up, but Moore continued to play with Bob and Billy Jack Wills at local venues throughout the decade. From 1956 to 1962 he also hosted and regularly performed on Ranger Roy and the Anna Banana Show , a locally televised children's program. In 1961 Moore opened the Tiny Moore Music Center, where he gave lessons on mandolin, fiddle, and guitar. He focused on teaching throughout much of the 1960s and wrote an instructional book called Mandolin Method . Moore played as a guest musician on numerous albums and was a member of Merle Haggard's band in the mid-1970s. In 1970 he recorded with Haggard on the album Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World , a salute to Bob Wills. In 1972 Moore recorded his first solo album, Tiny Moore Music . He regularly played with former members of the Playboys, such as Eldon Shamblin and Vance Terry, and frequently performed at music contests. In 1973 he played on Bob Wills's final recording, For the Last Time . Moore paired with fellow mandolinist Jethro Burns (of Homer and Jethro fame) and recorded a twin mandolin album called Back to Back in 1980. Throughout Moore's career, jazz musicians heavily influenced him, especially the early work of legendary Texas jazz guitarist Charlie Christian . Moore taught dozens of guitarists and was a major influence on musicians such as Ken Fraizer and Bob Murrell. He frequented nightclubs from Texas to California to stay in touch with the jazz music scene. He had a fatal heart attack onstage while playing with the Cadillac Band at a club in Jackpot, Nevada, on December 15, 1987. He was inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame in 1995 along with his wife Dean McKinney Moore. In 1999 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, honored as an early influence on the rock genre. Moore is also listed as a Music Legend in the Museum of the Gulf Coast’s Music Hall of Fame in Port Arthur. The

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Hamilton - 2025 Texas 2A Division I state football champion

2025

Hamilton defeated Joaquin 21-7 for the 2025 Texas 2A Division I state football championship.

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Hamilton County

1854

Hamilton County, in Central Texas, is bounded on the north by Comanche, Erath, and Johnson counties, on the west by Mills County, and on the south by Lampasas and Coryell counties. Its center lies at 31°47' north latitude and 98°13' west longitude, 114 miles north of Austin. The county was named for James Hamilton , a South Carolina governor who invested some $216,000 in gold to finance the Texas struggle for independence from Mexico. It covers 844 square miles wooded with pecan, live oak, elm, cedar, and post oak. Soils range from the sandy loams and sands and the dark, limy, crumbly, clays of the prairie, to the rich alluvial bottoms of the river valleys. The elevation of the county ranges between 900 and 1,600 feet above sea level. Except for the northwestern part, which lies in the Western Cross Timbers region, the county is rolling prairie marked by numerous flat-topped buttes that rise abruptly to stand on the divides between the county's many streams. The county is drained by the Leon, Lampasas, and Bosque rivers. Many of its deep, wide stream valleys are bordered by limestone cliffs that abut the intervening flat divides. The average annual rainfall is 29.61 inches; the average minimum temperature in January is 34° F, and the average maximum in July is 96°. The growing season lasts 239 days. The agriculture of the local economy earns about $31 million yearly, 90 percent of which derives from cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, and poultry. Crops include sorghums, small grains, cotton, hay, and pecans; irrigated land totals about 5,000 acres. The county's agribusiness also includes more than forty dairies. The manufacture of garments, wooden molding, steel products, and other goods earns the county about $5 million annually. Hamilton County has limited and declining oil production; production was about 5,000 barrels in 1982 and 2,067 in 1990. Major roads include U.S Highway 281 (north to south) and State highways 36 (northwest to southeast) and 22 (east to west). Though the extent of prehistoric settlement in the area that is now Hamilton County is unclear, at least five Indian burial mounds have been found on the banks of Cowhouse Creek, about 3½ miles from Pottsville. Waco and Tawakoni Indians lived on the Brazos and Trinity rivers some sixty miles to the east and northeast; they traded with the Tonkawas, a nomadic tribe that moved around Central Texas. Comanches also traveled through the Hamilton County area. The first permanent White settlers in the area were probably Robert Carter and his family, who arrived in 1854. By 1855 a number of others, including James Rice, Henry Standefer, Frederic Bookerman, William Beauchamp, and Asa Langford had settled there. Rice and Standefer opened a store that soon developed into the town of Hamilton; meanwhile, Langford built a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, a store, and a gristmill to form a settlement that came to be known as Langford's Cove (present-day Evant). Population grew rather rapidly, and in 1856 settlers circulated a petition asking that a new county be formed to accommodate their needs. Later that year the Texas legislature approved the request and marked off Hamilton County from land previously assigned to Comanche, Bosque, and Lampasas counties. Two years later a five-man commission selected the town of Hamilton to be the county seat. By 1860, when the county's first post office was established at the hamlet of Hico, the county included several small but well-established communities; that year the census found 489 residents. Geography helped to determine the pattern of settlement, as pioneers built along the wooded streams that crossed the rolling prairie, leaving the intervening divides to remain open range. According to the 1860 agricultural census only 290 acres of the county's 1,800 acres of farmland was improved; the wheat harvest was about 1,050 bushels that year, and corn production was 1,900 bushels. Though most of the county's early residents e

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Things to Do in Hamilton

quirky 5.2 mi away
Fairy, Texas
food 20.0 mi away
Koffee Kup Family Restaurant

Hico institution on West 2nd Street, serving comfort plates and homemade pie for nearly 50 years. Named one of Texas Monthly's 40 Best Cafes.
food 13.0 mi away
Dutchman's Hidden Valley

Roadside country store and deli on US Highway 281 north of Hamilton. Known for sourdough sandwiches, pie, and a Hill Country general-store vibe.

Sports in Hamilton

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 2A · Football · 2025

Hamilton Bulldogs — 2025 UIL 2A Division 1 Football State Champions

Most recent: 21-7 over Joaquin · 2025 2A Division 1 final

Hamilton High School, a proud Class 2A institution in the heart of Texas, holds a significant place in the state's football landscape. The Hamilton Bulldogs have demonstrated their competitive spirit and dedication on the gridiron, culminating in a notable state championship title.

The community of Hamilton rallies behind its Bulldogs, showcasing the deep-rooted passion for high school football that is characteristic of Texas. This commitment has helped forge a program that consistently competes at a high level within Class 2A.

State titles
2025
Most recent
2025, 21-7
Class
2A
The moment

In 2025, Hamilton High School secured the 2A Division 1 state championship, defeating Joaquin with a final score of 21-7.

Sources: Wikipedia · UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Hamilton

84 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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